I've made some stellar friends here in the past 10 years. The list is long and varied. People have reached out and touched me (figuratively and literally!) in more ways than I care to enumerate. It's a nice little world we developed here and it changed my life, both in terms of general health and wellness AND in terms of social events, racing, training, dating and finally marriage. CRAZY.

Sunday - March 16

For Chris and our 3 other friends @ the Cary Half Marathon. Went to miles 4 and 8 and the finish. Thank God he finished when he did. I couldn't handle any more time out there in the elements!

Today is the Cary March Madness Half Marathon.

Today it's 14 degrees outside with a windchill of NEGATIVE 4.

Probably as cold as I've ever been in my life. Frozen. Solid. AND I was sporting all of the appropriate gear! Long down coat. Wool socks. 2 hoods. A wool hat. Lobster mitts. I *almost* wished I was running... just so I could have kept myself warmer!

Clockwise from top L: Chris running, almost @ Mile 8. Girls @ the start, ready to rob a convenience store. Me and Trudy huddling like Emperor Penguins, trying to stay warm, and Chris and his friend Andrew, at the start.

BRRRRR. I had some windburn on my face after this was all said and done!

Friday - March 14

Oh God. Feline. I fear my firstfavorite F word could very well be Feline.

Meow.

12:09 PM: Back from the doctor. I have been cleared for all activities. Large and small. The one caveat the doctor gave me was "make sure it's legal in the state you're currently in". I think I can handle that.

He also told me my surgery was difficult. And long. (Longer than they originally planned...) the fibroids were attached by a stalk but the stalk was thick, so the surface area on the outside of the uterus that had to be cut was larger than expected. The whole procedure was bloodier than expected as well, but he was impressed with how well I've recovered. He said it's due in no small part to my health and fitness. It's a heck of a lot easier to recover from surgery if you're in decent shape to start off. Sounds like common sense but that's good to hear.

One more thing... when the doctor walked into the room, he said... "You look great!" and I said... "Every other time we've met in recent memory I've either been worried about getting pregnant, pregnant, worried about losing the baby, going through a tragedy, or preparing for surgery. This is what I look like in my day to day life."

Hah. I do look better, though. Mostly because I feel better. And I'm eating better.

Thursday - March 13

So, yesterday, I was talking to my Mom on the phone and she asked me how I was feeling. I paused for a moment and asked her... "Why?"

Yes. I forgot I had surgery.

So I will therefore declare myself healed. Doctor's appointment tomorrow to get the final clearance to get back at it in terms of exercise, but for all intents and purposes, I think that's it.

Here is a list of some other things I've forgotten recently:

Chris' half marathon this weekend.

Dinner with my friend Trudy.

My blood pressure medication.

My lunch.

The book I borrowed from a friend at work.

My work badge to get into and out of the building.

My brain is halfway engaged. I am not certain what the other half is doing, but obviously it's not remembering things. Perhaps the other half of my brain is working on "crazy dreams".

I've had several whack ass dreams lately, in addition to the close up kissing of Jared Leto. The other night I had a dream there were no available desks for me to sit in at work, so I had to sit at the desk of this one management person. He wasn't there. He had just gotten a new computer and it was rounded and clear, and it sort of looked like those old Apple Macs.

Anyway, I was sitting at his desk with his new/old computer when he came in, and told me "it's fine if you sit at my desk, but I've got a contagious bone disease, so you have to drink this silicone powder if you want to continue to sit here." And he plopped this HP printer cartridge of "silicone powder" onto the desk and told me to open it and "drink" it. I didn't think that was a good idea, so I got up and stormed off.

There were a bunch of other work people involved in this dream in different capacities, mostly just watching this scene unfold.

Wednesday - March 12

Our weather forecasters were correct in their prediction of 1-17 inches, since 4 and 5 fall right in that range. It's also about 22 degrees outside, which is clearly between 0 and 100.

We have a delayed office opening, too. So... that's good. Perhaps the powers that be are learning a little something.

10:29 AM: Ironically, the drive to work this morning wasn't that bad. Not much longer than usual. Not many people on the road. There was one crazy snow plow driver weaving all over the place, though, plowing snow INTO the streets and intersections, like he was GOD DAMNED DONE WITH THIS BULLSHIT and just didn't care anymore.

Molly says... "I want to walk around in the backyard! What's going on with all of this mushy wet coldness!!?!?!!?"

Tuesday - March 11

6:49 AM: So... it was 53 degrees yesterday! Glory be! Chris opened the windows in the house and I drove home from work with the top down! It was amazing to breathe non-recirculated, non-frozen air. (I take the top down @ 51 degrees... so we just made the cut off!)

My joy is short lived, however. We are supposed to fall victim to yet another WINTER STORM later today. I can scarcely contain my excitement. 4-6 inches locally, with some areas lucky enough to get up to 10 inches of heavy, wet, craptacular snow! Yay! And to think, yesterday I was full of springtime hope as I glimpsed the muddy, flattened, brown mat that used to be our "lawn".

9:56 AM: I have a doctor's appointment on Friday. I'm hoping I am released to do all of the things I'm not doing right now. Like exercise, lift heavy objects, walk upstairs, and maybe even that s-word...

Swim. (What were you perverts thinking?)

4:43 PM: The latest ridiculousness I have heard regarding tomorrow's storm is that we will get 1-17 inches of snow. ONE to SEVENTEEN. And it will be between 0-100 degrees.